Tonight: A Must-Watch on the Biggest International Women's Crises, and What Amazing People Are Doing About Them

"In any ten-year period you have more girls who are discriminated against to death than all the people who died in all the genocides of the twentieth century."

Did that stat absolutely shock you? I could barely believe it when I heard Nicholas Kristof cite it as as the impetus behind his book with wife Sheryl WuDunn Half the Sky. Last week, I saw him speak on how the oppression of women and girls around the world is the central moral challenge of our time.

A new chapter in Kristof's crusade begins tonight on PBS with the worldwide premiere of Half the Sky, a documentary film that seeks to bring even more awareness to both the challenges confronting women as well as some amazing individuals pioneering solutions around the world.

The documentary follows six actresses, including America Ferrera, around the world. When she arrived in the red-light district of Kolkata, India, she found 10-year-old girls forced into prostitution by their bothers, a practice that goes back generations. Ferrera wrote about how going to India changed her forever on page 162 of our November 2012 issue. Pick up a copy of the issue, on newsstands October 9, or download the digital edition to read her accounts of how meeting the women defying the culture of prostitution awed her, and the experiences Ferrera will never forget.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide is a two-part broadcast event airing tonight and tomorrow night on PBS at 9 PM ET. You can find out more about the Half the Sky movement, including what you can do right now to help empower women and girls around the world, here.